Dumping Direct and Cable TV

[Supe]

If Sling TV managed to add HBO, Showtime, and Big Ten Network, i'd do it in a heartbeat.  Without those, I'm stuck with my absurdly high monthly bill.  I really don't want to have to bundle 10 different services/subscriptions so that I need a damn cheat sheet just to figure out how to watch our weekly shows.

 

[goodal]

ditto

 

[jeb6294]

The TV in the family room is hooked up to my laptop. It's set to stay on when you close the lid so it is stashed in the entertainment center. I am able to cheat the system a bit because I can log in to my mom's TW account. It lets you watch some channels via the TW app, but it's pretty limited since it sees that it's not her wi-fi. You can also stream a lot of channels live if you're able to log in with a provider account so it works for that too. We've got a few other tricks to watch additional stuff, but that's a gray area.

I stuck an antenna up on the side of the house and we get 50-somthing channels now. It's actually more than that but I still need to go through and delete some of the duplicates that we're picking up from Dayton...so, yeah, it works really well. It was on sale at Walmart for $15, but they're still pretty cheap. I also got a TV tuner card so I can use the laptop to watch and/or record live TV. Works good for recording Bengals games if we're going to be out on Sundays.

To give you an idea of size, it's about 2 1/2' long.

 

[Road Guy]

I've got the cheap antenna for the garage tv (football tv) it does get a large amount of channels but 2/3 of them are in Spanish. great for football but and network tv but not much else in all honesty..

 

[knight1fox3]

I really don't want to have to bundle 10 different services/subscriptions so that I need a damn cheat sheet just to figure out how to watch our weekly shows.

2 services is too much to manage? :huh:  Amazon Prime and Hulu isn't bad at all.

Again, Big10 can be streamed. HBO/Showtime can be downloaded.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

The TV in the family room is hooked up to my laptop. It's set to stay on when you close the lid so it is stashed in the entertainment center. I am able to cheat the system a bit because I can log in to my mom's TW account. It lets you watch some channels via the TW app, but it's pretty limited since it sees that it's not her wi-fi. You can also stream a lot of channels live if you're able to log in with a provider account so it works for that too. We've got a few other tricks to watch additional stuff, but that's a gray area.

I stuck an antenna up on the side of the house and we get 50-somthing channels now. It's actually more than that but I still need to go through and delete some of the duplicates that we're picking up from Dayton...so, yeah, it works really well. It was on sale at Walmart for $15, but they're still pretty cheap. I also got a TV tuner card so I can use the laptop to watch and/or record live TV. Works good for recording Bengals games if we're going to be out on Sundays.

To give you an idea of size, it's about 2 1/2' long.

I have that antenna mounted up in my attic.  Works great for pulling in stations about 35 miles away or less.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I also have one of these hooked up to my antenna to record OTA TV.  It works pretty awesome.  You just have to get a USB drive.  I have a 4 TB drive hooked up to mine.

https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1475166878&sr=1-3&keywords=homeworx

 

[roadwreck]

We have an antenna for OTA channels and use Sling for a for sports (ESPN).  Sling does offer HBO for an additional cost.  

 

[knight1fox3]

This the amplified antenna that I went with that's installed in my attic. I can pull down around 25 HD channels, some as far as Chicago.

https://www.amazon.com/TERK-Amplified-Indoor-HDTV-Antenna/dp/B0007MXZB2

I used Antenna Web to help determine the most optimal direction.

 

[Road Guy]

but other than tbs and the 3 network channels what all channels do you actually get? my little wal mart digital antenna gets lots of channels but most of them are ****

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I get:

ABC and two other ABC affiliates that broadcast classic programming (METV and Heros & Icons)

NBC and one other NBC affiliate that does Sports and weather

CBS and three other affiliates that broadcast classic programming (Justtice Network and Decades, and weather)

FOX and one other affiliate that broadcasts classic programming (AntennaTV)

CW

4 different PBS stations

ION

Qubo (all cartoons)

ION life

3 or 4 religious programming stations of various religions

Two or three shopping channels (one of them is QVC another is HSN)

At least one Spanish programming station

 

[Road Guy]

So basically ****?

 

[knight1fox3]

Indeed. I didn't say good channels, but channels no less. Ion is pretty decent. I actually wish we got TBS, they don't broadcast in our area anymore for some reason. We get a few other local specific channels, but similar to what Audi listed.

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

So basically ****?

I could be paying for, say, cable and thus get about 500 more channels of nothing but ****.  But at least this **** is free.

 

[Road Guy]

But I get the Vail news?

The channel I watch the most is probably Starz, (I think that's what its called) but they have a great range of odd and new movies..

We did some research the last time we cut the cord and it seemed we end up paying about the same each month on other things, when we don't have cable we would rent more movies, or buy more movies and in general spend more going to the movies...

 

[jeb6294]

Does anyone know if there's an app out there that lets you sign in with your provider info and then stream all the channels you'd get on regular cable? The other day someone at work was talking about some app that they signed in with their TW stuff and then sounded like all the available channels were there with a program guide instead of going to websites for each individual channel.

My Walmart antenna can go outside or in the attic. The numbers I saw were anywhere from 40-70% reduction in signal strength depending on which webpage you were reading, but signal strength had nothing to do with it, I'd rather climb up the side of the house than crawl around in the attic.

 

[Supe]

My Direct TV app does that.  You can also set your DVR, etc. through their app.

 

[knight1fox3]

The only ones I'm aware of which allow you to do that are DTV and TWC.

 

[Road Guy]

I can watch anything on the Ipad that is on Comcast anywhere I have service/wifi/etc.  The only bad part is they don't adjust it to the time zone your in so everything is on east coast time...

 

[mudpuppy]

I can watch anything on the Ipad that is on Comcast anywhere I have service/wifi/etc.  The only bad part is they don't adjust it to the time zone your in so everything is on east coast time...

This.  Wife's mom has a much more comprehensive plan than we do, so we log in this way to watch my wife's favorite team (Cubs).